4. Mound E Gateway Reconstruction
Using interpretations presented in Meadow and others (1995), a reconstruction of the bastion/gateway area was completed in EarthVision. The computer reconstructions were based on an artistic rendering completed by HARP archaeologists. These reconstructions show the configuration of the perimeter walls, drains, and gateway as they may have existed sometime in Period 3C (2200-1900 B.C.). The gateway rises above the corbeled arch drain and connects the perimeter walls that appear to encircle Mounds E and ET. In the EarthVision reconstruction, the eastern structures on the Mound ET perimeter wall are reconstructed as a side room building, with the Mound ET perimeter wall eroded to the ground surface.

The actual gateway is located between large baked brick piers that are in turn connected to the massive mud brick perimeter walls. The entrance street was approximately 2.6 meters wide and would have been the main entrance to this portion of the city running along the eastem edge of the Mound E perimeter wall.

The gateway appears to have been built during the initial Harappan phase of Mound ET occupation, when an extension of the Mound E city wall was built to enclose Mound ET. Radiocarbon dating and ceramic analysis place this initial phase of construction during period 3A (2600-2450 B.C.) and 3B (2450-2200 B.C.). The second phase of gateway construction took place during the early phases of Period 3C (2200-1900 B.C.) and a third phase of construction taking place at the final stages of Period 3C.



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